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Chords of the Zither 

Clinton Scollard 




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Chords of the Zither 



Chords of the Zither 



Clinton Scollard 



Clinton, New York 
GEORGE WILLIAM BROWNING 

1910 



Copyright, September, 1910, by Clinton Scollard. 



5 «/ 



The Author desires to thank the Editors of the various 
publications in which these verses originally appeared 
for their kind permission to reprint. 



©CLA27304^ 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



IN THE GRAND BAZAR 9 

THE CARAVAN 11 

MUWAGGAR 13 

THE TOMB OF BIZZOS 14 

LOOKING DOWN FROM LEBANON . . 15 

THERE WAS AN ARCH AT BANIAS . . 18 

SHIPS OF THE DESERT 19 

FLOWERS 20 

WELID, THE WATER-BEARER ... 21 

TWO RIDERS 24 

UNDER THE CAROB BOUGH ... 25 

STARS OVER EGYPT 26 

IN THE VALE OF MEDJ-EL-HAR ... 27 

FAITHS 29 

JERBA 30 

SYRIAN LOVE SONG 32 

GATH 33 

THE CENSER 34 

GOLDEN EYES 35 

A PRISONER IN ARABY 37 

A MUEZZIN 39 

TIBERIAS 40 

NIGHT IN LEBANON 41 

MOONLIGHT IN THE DESERT ... 43 

IN A SNOWSTORM 44 

A SYRIAN MEMORY 45 

DEAD CITIES 46 

A SARABAND 47 



1 chafed at the gyves that bouvd under the western star, 
When over the ivelter of ivaves a clear voice called from 

afar, 
And 1 said, "I ivill seek once more the Nile and the 

nenuphar!" 

So I strode to the long, low quays, and boarded a deep- 
decked bark, 

And we plowed through the phosphor seas by the 
beacons of day and dark 

Till we raised the Gate of the East with the sweep of 
its harbor arc. 

There lay the undulant dunes dull cinnabar in the sun, 
A drooping disk in the waves; and the palms rose one 

by one. 
And the Pillar of Pompey told of a time whose sands 

had run. 

Weirdly the ivindmills waved, arm upon circling arm; 
A flight of flamingoes gave to the heaven a roseate 

charm, 
And the twilight folded the land as a mother her child 

from harm. 

The conqueror's city glowed with a blending of prismy 
shades; 

The light of the Pharos flashed like the points of a 
myriad blades; 

And the hot Khamsin swept out of the night's dim col- 
onnades — 



Swept from the desert *s heart, a phantom of fiery breath, 
From the wide mysterious wastes inhere the sere earth 

shriveleth, 
Yet it spake with the lure of life not the hollow plaint 

of death. 

And it bore the old sweet smells — attar, incense and 

nard; 
It charmed tvith the old strange spells that the lost 

years have not scarred, 
The tinkle of anklet bells, the lilt of the wandering bard; 

The jangled cries of the street, music and discord met; 
The fountain's lyric purl, the zither's rhythmic fret. 
And the rapt muezzin's call from the crest of the minaret. 

And my soul yearned out to it all like a guest who is 

fain of a feast. 
While the cryptic orient stars on the scroll of the sky 

increased. 
And '* Welcome! welcome! son!" floated forth from the 

Gate of the East. 



Choeds of the Zither 



IN THE GRAND BAZAR 

In the Grand Bazar of the Damascenes, 

With its violet lights and purple sheens, 

And sifting in from the outer air 

The shimmer of amber here and there, 

You may touch through sight and sound and scent 

The very heart of the Orient ! 

Come, then, comrade, and let us drift 

With the human tides that part and shift 

And surge and jostle, and taste the thrill 

Of life that smacks of the desert still, 

And keeps some glimmering ghost of the state 

Of the glamoured days of the Caliphate! 

Haughty of mein and rich of dress. 

Saunter the Lords of the Wilderness — 

(Mark the pride of Bassan Beni, 

Sheik of a wide oasis he) — 

With their camel's-hair head-ropes bound with gold 

Over silvery kerchiefs fold on fold! 

Sellers of sherbet and sellers of sweets, 

Venders of spices and milk and meats, 

Water-bearers, with cheery chants, 

Droning dervishes, mendicants — 

Such is the mesh that the motley means 

In the Grand Bazar of the Damascenes! 



10 Choeds op the Zither 



And when the chaffer and din are done, 
And the sun dips down behind Lebanon, 
And the last of the pilgrim feet has trod 
Through Bawabet Ullah, the Gates of God, 
And there's never a sign of a veiled face, 
Nor a proud Pasha (by Allah's grace!) 
Then what a pageant from Timur down 
Passes this pathway of old renown, — 
Spirits outstolen from paradise 
To wander awhile in their earthly guise, 
While night, with her spangled mantle, leans 
O'er the Grand Bazar of the Damascenes! 



Choeds of the Zithee 11 



THE CARAVAN 

From underneath the carob shade, 
A wavering line of gray and white, 

I watch it lose its form and fade 

Like dreams across the face of night. 

Whither it goes I can but guess, 

Haply where ruined Tadmor stands, 

The voiceless haunt of loneliness, 
Amid the desert's swirling sands; 

Or toward the Tigris' tawny tide 
Into that land of ancient thrift 

Where Bagdad's rich bazars spread wide, 
And Haroun's minarets uplift; 

Or toward the swart Arabian skies, 
The home of sempiternal calms, 

Where pilgrims seek their paradise 
Through Mecca girdled with its palms. 

Yet howsoe'er it fares, I fare, 

In buoyant spirit I am one 
With those that drink the untrammeled air, 

The nomad children of the sun. 



12 Chords op the Zither 

From camel-back I scan the waste 

A fair oasis sign to find, 
And stranger to all thoughts of haste 

Let my kaffeyeh take the wind. 

Sandaled with silence, on I press, 
Eousing before the flower of morn, 

Through spaces where forgetfulness 

Seems to have dwelt since time was born. 

And when, with soothing touch, comes night 
After the round of jars and joys. 

Above the head, in Allah's sight. 

The hosts of heaven wheel and poise. 

Throughout the strangely tranquil days 
I join in prayer and fast and feast. 

Looking on life with long, slow gaze 
As does the fatalistic East. 

And then — and then — the goal! — Ah, me! 

At last, wherever range th man, 
How well we know that there must be 

One bourn for every caravan! 



Chords of the Zither 15 

MUWAGGAR 

Above the walls of Muwaggar 
There is no blot on all the blue, 
Only the vulture veering through 

The azure spaces faint and far. 

Within the gates of Muwaggar 
There is no warder but the wind; 
Only the mole, that burrower blind. 

Where prone the once proud portals are. 

Along the streets of Muwaggar 

There is no smoke of sacrifice; 

No garland laid, in votive wise, 
To any low or lordly Lar. 

Silence and Death in Muwaggar 
Have held supreme their citadel 
How long no tongue of man may tell, 

Without or let or ban or bar. 

Silence and Death in Muwaggar 
Will keep their triumph stronghold still, 
Aye, even until the Eternal Will 

Sunders from space the sun and star! 



14 Chords of the Zither 

THE TOMB OF BIZZOS 

(Syi'ia) 

O'er Bizzos, son of Pardos, when he died, 
A skillful builder reared a noble tomb, 
Toiling until it marked the very bloom 

Of his rich art — a work that has defied 

For years unnumbered time's relentless tide. 
Its rare perfection lifts the pall of gloom 
From death, and we forget the pallid plume 

In dome and door, the unknown sculptor's pride. 

Bizzos, the son of Pardos ! — worthy man — 
So the inscription o'er the portal shows; 
And yet — and yet — ah, curious irony 
That he, and not the marvellous artisan 
Whose genius through each line of marble glows 
Should have achieved to immortality! 



Chords of the Zither 15 

LOOKING DOWN FROM LEBANON 

Strains of lutes and sweet recorders, 

These the lips of morning bore; 
Roseate were the bloomy borders 

Of the Galilean shore. 
Through the blossoms up we mounted 

Till the crowning crest we won, 
And earth's ancient kingdoms counted, 

Looking down from Lebanon! 

There was Tyre, the myriad-towered; 

(Where was her tiara now?) 
There was Sidon, palm-embowered, 

Once so golden bright of brow; 
There where stretched the parched, unpitied 

Hauran in the flaming sun. 
Naught to see but wastes uneitied, 

Looking down from Lebanon! 

By the Jordan's lyric fountains 

Dan was as a buried shard ; 
Round Samaria 'mid her mountains 

Snarled the surly jackal guard; 
Yet from this despoilment cruel 

Still there shone resplendent one 
Beaming like a gleaming jewel, 

Looking down from Lebanon! 



16 Chords of the Zither 

Aye, an opal glancing, glowing, 

Every lovely shifting shade 
Of an orient rainbow showing, — 

Beauty's very soul displayed; 
Such Damascus seemed, its story 

By some marvellous genie spun, 
Viewed, a radiant dream of glory. 

Looking down from Lebanon! 

Orchard-close and garth and garden,- 

Orange, citron, almond gloom, — 
Where the rose is ever warden. 

And the jasmines always bloom! 
Where from living wells eternal 

Singing waters leap and run, 
Scene inviolate and vernal 

Looking down from Lebanon! 

Here a minaret tapering slender 

As a shaft of amber light; 
There a watch-tower, stark defender 

Of the Saracenic might! 
Unbelievers, they may scoff it ! — 

Not so Allah's chosen son! 
"It is Paradise!" quoth the Prophet, 

Looking down from Lebanon! 



Chords of the Zither 17 

Alpine summits, heights Andean, 

And those purple peaks that rise 
Toward the arching empyrean 

Where the fair Pacific lies, — 
Grant these all their wealth of wonder, 

But give me, when night is done, 
Just to be, the blue skies under, 

Looking down from Lebanon! 



18 Chords of the Zither 

THERE WAS AN ARCH AT BANIAS 

There was an arch at Banias, 
A gateway bnilded royally, 
Whereon was graved for man to see, — 

For every traveler that might pass, — 
O'er all beneath the wheeling sun 
There rules supreme one Allah, — one! 

Crumbled that arch at Banias, 

No more than shard or shattered stone 
Round which the mountain winds make moan ; 

Yet still, howe'er the ages pass. 
O'er all beneath the ivheeling sun 
There rules supreme otie Allah, — one! 



Chords of the Zither 19 

SHIPS OF THE DESERT 

Ships of the desert, whither are you bound, 
Gliding as silent as white barks at sea 

Across a shimmering level waste, profound 
In its immensity? 

Ships of the desert, I would voyage with you ; 

Buoy me and bear me, a most willing thrall, 
One of the tawny, of the turbaned crew 

Of your swart ammiral ! 

Rare eastern unguents, fabrics of rich looms. 
Jars brimmed with myrrh and bales of costly spice, 

Attars distilled from velvet-petal led blooms 
And gems of princely price, — 

These are your burdens, yet it is not these 
That lure my spirit o'er yon burning zone, 

But the sun-spell, the evasive mysteries 
That gird the vast unknown ! 

For somewhere there, undesecrate, apart, 

In all its virgin loveliness of guise, 
A something whispers to my wandering heart 

That earth's lost Eden lies! 



20 Chords of the Zither 

FLOWERS 

Over each Syrian hillslope, 
And up each Syrian glen, 

Behold the billows of poppies, 
Lupin and cyclamen! 

Here swayed the mightiest armies, 
A turbulent human flood, 

And here the innocent meadows 
Were dyed with innocent blood! 

Darius and Alexander, — 
Conquered and conqueror! 

How the flowers, the faithful flowers, 
Follow the feet of War! 



Chords of the Zither 21 

WELID, THE WATER-BEARER 

It fell in the time of famine that the water-springs ran 
dry, 

For rillet, and well, and fountain were lapped by the 
thirsty sky 

That burned day-long with a fever, and lay through the 
night a-swoon 

In heat that hung like a halo round the disk of the lurid 
moon. 

The fruit on the bough was wizened, and the grain in 
the field was dead; 

The sheep were faint on the hillside, the kine were faint 
in the shed; 

And prayer arose in the morning, ere the hoarse muez- 
zin cried, 

And prayer was heard at nightfall long after the twi- 
light died. 

Now the days of evil strengthened with the wane of each 

heavy hour, 
And Welid, the water-bearer, had never a coin for 

dower. 
For the frenzied people flouted that he bore them bitter 

drink 
From the parching pools of the desert with salt like 

foam at the brink. 



22 Choeds of the Zither 



And there sat as guest at Ms hearthstone Despair of 

the icy breath, 
And he felt a grip at his heart-strings, the clutch of 

the hand of Death. 

But lo, in the noon's hot languor his soul went out in 
a dream, 

And he stood in a land of plenty on the bank of a crys- 
tal stream; 

And there he beheld beside him a man with a godlike 
face. 

Whose presence clothed with a glory the whole of the 
vernal place! 

Green was the hue of his turban, and the robe that he 
wore was white, 

And the poor man knew the Prophet by the flood of the 
heavenly light. 

And he fell on his knees before him and covered his 
dazzled eyes. 

"Arise!" said the one immortal, '^0 my faithful ser- 
vant, rise! 

Thou shalt bring to my suffering people a boon from 
the heart of earth; 

In the castle rock-well olden this hour hath a fountain 
birth 

Where never, in ken of the living, hath a drop of water 
rilled, 



Chords of the Zither 23 

But now, behold, thou wilt find it with the wine of nature 

filled! 
The voice of prayer is answered that ye firm in faith 

abide ; 
No more by the fire of famine and thirst shall the land 

be tried." 

The vision paled and vanished, and Welid arose and ran 

Through the fervid streets of the city like a fever-mad- 
dened man. 

He won to the ancient castle that gloomed from its 
craggy height, 

A bulwark to Arab armies in the press of the stubborn 
fight; 

And there, amid braided brambles, where the ramparts 
reared o'erhead, 

Did a fount gush cool and limpid, as the shining one had 
said. 

Then the joyful man toward Mecca bowed thrice the 
fount beside, — 

''Thou hast saved thy people, Allah, through thy hum- 
blest child!" he cried. 



24 Chords of the Zither 

TWO RIDERS 

With Nahar sitting in his goat's-hair tent 
(Nahar the just, the owner of fat flocks) 
While o'er tlie fire the fragrant coffee bean 
Simmered and sung, I heard the hurry of hoofs, 
And one stood in tlie doorway. Nahar cried, 
Upon him gazing kindly, "Welcome, friend. 
And in the Prophet's name! Who rides with thee?'' 
Answered the other, entering, "Only Allah!" 



Chords of the Zither 25 



UNDER THE OAROB BOUGH 

Under the bough of a carob 
We sat till the sun sank low, 

And the love song of an Arab 
Came up through the afterglow. 

It held our silent heeding 
From tremulous start to fall, 

With its little catch of pleading 
At each drooping interval. 

And sudden it all grew clearer, — 
What I yearned so to express ; 

And I knew you were leaning nearer 
With a smiling tenderness. 

Ah, a lonely heart goes roaming, 
And again I long for it now, — • 

That hour in the Syrian gloaming 
Under the carob bough! 



26 Chords of the Zither 

STAKS OVER EGYPT 

We are the orbs eternal 

Lighting the outer void, 
Blossoms forever vernal, 

Aster and asteroid; 
Isis and Osiris 

And Anunon, what are they? 
They are as marsh fire is ; 

We are for aye and a day ! 

The Serapeum solemn, 

The Sphinx with brooding lid, 
Capital and column, 

Pylon and pyramid, 
Memnon's silenced singing 

Under the dawning ray — 
They are as swallows winging; 

We are for aye and a day! 

When ne'er a Pharos flaming 

Brightens the whelmed earth, 
When man shall have done with naming 

The creatures of mortal birth, 
' When all the creeds have crumbled 

As crumbles the potter's clay, 
We shall abide unhumbled; 

We are for aye and a day ! 



Chords of the Zither 27 



IN THE VALE OF MEDJ-EL-HAR 

Bleak above brood peaks of peril, — 
Umber streaked with cinnabar, — 

While below stretch meads of beryl 
In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 

When dawn breaks or daytime closes 
Blow no wanton winds to mar 

The soft swaying of the roses 
In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 

Nightingales their love-notes olden 
Lift to greet the vesper star; 

E'en the silences are golden 
In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 

Lovely lote and graceful osier, 
Waters like the clear Pharpar, 

To the eye yield rapt disclosure 
In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 

Mosque and khan and highway babel, 

Chaffer of the loud bazar. 
Faint they are as tongues of fable 

In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 



28 Chords of the Zither 



All the blisses dreamed by mortals, 
Life and love without a scar, 

Wait beyond the shining portals 
In the vale of Medj-el-Har. 



Chords of the Zither 29 

FAITHS 

Anubis and Osiris, Bast and Baal, 

These faiths are as blown sand before the wind, 

And where redoubtable Ammon was enshrined 
Only the prowling desert beasts prevail. 
Prone are the temples in the Delphian dale, 

And the Cumean sibyl who shall find? 

Proud Astoreth from glory has declined, 
And Thor is but a dim-remembered tale. 

Their signs and symbols are but perished things, 
Engulfed for aye in the abyss of night ; 

But one clear star its fadeless splendor flings 
Adown the years unchanging to the sight. 

And though death winnow with its darksome wings 
Still points the way unto the Perfect Light ! 



30 Chords of the Zither 



JERBA 

Jerba, the sheik, who ruled the Ben Shamar, 

Lay groveling in the doorway of his tent, 

For tyrannous despair had stormed his heart 

And banished hope. Around, the brazen noon 

Shimmered with maddening lustre on the sand. 

Within, the women moaned; and by the well, 

Beneath the breezeless shadow of the palms, 

The children whimpered. Parched the pastures were 

Wanting the silvery benison of showers ; 

One after one had failed the lagging flock, 

While all save chaff had vanished of the grain 

That many a day had held gaunt famine off. 

In vain had prayers at rise and set of sun, 

At midnight, and the fever of high noon. 

Been lifted up to Allah. Not a sign 

To suppliant man gave back the cruel sky. 

And now to Jerba, pinched and haggard-eyed, 

Out of the blistering waste rode strangers twain, 

And craved both food and shelter at his hand. 

Shame sits forever on the brow of him 

Who sends the traveler hungry from his door, 

And though sharp anguish thorned him to the heart, 

Forth from his tent went Jerba, head down-bent, 

The poignance of his sorrow moving him 

Until his footsteps faltered. Thus he came 



Chords of the Zither 31 



Unto the tether of his faithful steed, 
The horse that oft had borne him fleet and far, 
Whose noble sire might well have been the wind 
So swift he was. Here, sobbing, on his knees 
The sheik sank, raising one more trustful prayer 
To him who reigns supreme in paradise. 
Then, his fine features grim with stern resolve, 
The word "forgiveness" poised upon his lip. 
For to his soul it seemed the steed must know, 
He drew his scimitar. It poised in air. 
Glittered a second, golden in the sun, 
When, hark,— a cry, wherethrough vibrated joy! 
And as he set eyes on the long-watched east, 
Lo, there the angel of deliverance dawned. 
For those strange desert-ships, the camels, came 
With opulent cargo! 

Round his horse's neck 
With passionate tenderness clasped Jerba's arms 
"Great is thy name, Allah!" low he cried, 
"Nor fail thy benefactions to that man 
Who, sorely tried, grips duty still to heart!" 



32 Chords of the Zither 



SYRIAN LOVE SONG 

There's a glade amid the mountains 

(Lovely glade!) 
Glamoured by the flash of fountains 

And the cedar shade; 
There the moon seems wrought of amber, 

And the stars; 
And the roses coil and clamber 

Round Zuleika's casement bars! 

Hasten, hasten, bear me thither, 

Eager feet! 
Be in tune, throbbing zither, 

With a music sweet ! 
Aid me, love, fitly to fashion 

(Aid me, stars!) 
Words to voice my ardent passion 

'Neath Zuleika's casement bars! 

Lo, a shadowy bar uncloses 

To disclose 
Her fair face among the roses 

Radiant as a rose! 
Gleaming eyes the gloom have rifted, 

(Wondrous stars!) 
And my heart by love is lifted 

To Zuleika's casement bars! 



Chords of the Zither 



GATH 

Pillar and plinth o'erthrown, 
Stone upon toppled stone 
With the lean lichen grown, — 
Cairn by a desert path, — 
And this is Gath! 

Only the lizard sly, 
Only the vulture high 
In the burnt vault of sky; 
Glory — its aftermath! 
And this is Gath ! 



34 Choeds op the Zither 

THE CENSER 

To one who prayed beneath a lentisk bough 
Outcried a curious passer, "What art thou?" 
The kneeling devotee made quick reply — 
"In Allah's mosque, the world, a censer I; 
And daily, morn and noon and night, I raise 
Unto his throne my frankincense of praise." 



Chords of the Zither 35 

GOLDEN-EYES 

Golden-Eyes, let us resume 

That remote, rich-memoried hour 
When the poppies were in bloom 

By the old clepsydra tower! 
Crimson roses let us twine, 

Garlands from the myrtle tree. 
Votive wreaths for Ishtar's shrine 

By the blue Sidonian sea ! 

Warders by the water wall. 

We will hear their deep-voiced hail, 
And the immemorial thrall 

Of the hidden nightingale, — 
Atys whose sore-burdened heart 

Is through chords of melody 
Eased of sorrow and its smart 

By the ))lue Sidonian sea! 

We will hark the tettix shrill 

Its long-drawn, persistent note; 
List the lute-tones of the rill 

Rippling from its silvern throat; 
Prom the braided laurel shade 

Watch the sun droop royally. 
Love-beguiled man and maid 

By the blue Sidonian sea! 



36 Chords op the Zither 

Life will be for us a cup 

With the wine of joy a-brim; 
We will lift the chalice up 

While the day grows dusk and dim 
Once again, in haunting wise, 

Comes the magic dream to me> — 
Comes the dream of Golden-Eyes 

By the blue Sidonian sea ! 



Chobds of the Zither 37 

A PRISONER IN ARABY 

My body is stayed by iron bars, 

But my spirit is as free 
As the wind that wanders beneath the stars, 

Or the foal of the Nedjidee. 

So I mount and ride through the spacious night 

Toward a far oasis well, 
And ere ever the palm trees lift in sight 

I am shaken under a spell. 

For one there waits in her goat's-hair tent 

For my coming in yearning wise ; 
And no planet in all the firmament 

Has the light of her loving eyes. 

No bird of song in a Meccan bower 

Her tender voice can eclipse ; 
And there never blossomed a mountain flower 

With the fragrance of her lips. 

Fleet as a hind in the midnight gleam 

I steal to her tent door lone, 
And she opens her arms in a waking dream, 

And whispers, ''my own! my own!" 



38 Chords of the Zither 



They may fetter my body with gyve and bond 

Their prison gates behind, 
But, by Allah above, in the Great Beyond, 

My spirit they cannot bind! 



Chords of the Zither 39 



A MUEZZIN 

Allah il Allah!" thus his matin cry 

O'er the awakened city floats abroad, 
Rings through the spaces of the morning sky,- 
'' There is no God but God!" 

Albeit his lips thus loudly part in prayer, 
Anon he goes to haggle in the mart 

Where his shrewd, avaricious eyes declare 
Greed is his god at heart! 



40 Choeds of the Zither 



TIBERIAS 

By the clear margin of the sea 
Of mountain-guarded Galilee, 
Well-nigh forsaken and forgot, 
A shunned and evil- omened spot 
It seems to all who pause or pass, — 
Tiberias ! Tiberias ! 

Bearing the name of him who thrust 
On Rome his wolfish love of lust, 
Builded by him whose fell intent 
Judea's babes to slaughter sent, 
Dire was its fathering, — alas, 
Tiberias! Tiberias! 

And so it stands, a memory. 
By Galilee's blue-bosomed sea. 
Of wantonness and pride o'erthrown; 
Hark how the dirging winds, intone 
O'er it their melancholy mass! — 
Tiberias ! Tiberias ! 



Chords of the Zither 41 



NIGHT IN LEBANON 

Noon of night in Lebanon ! 

What a gathering-place for dreams! 

Little silver-tongued streams 

Singing all in unison; 

And that lutantist, the wind, 

Sowing fallow fields of air 

With his music-seeds that find 

Mellow nurture everywhere, 

Flowering into long delight; — 

Lebanon at noon of night! 

Noon of night in Lebanon ! 
Sibyl whispers from the trees, 
Omens, portents, prophecies; 
And the gracious benison 
Of the hand of solitude. 
Freeing from doubt's cruel clutch, 
Healing every bitter mood 
With the magic of its touch. 
Giving sense a wider sight ; — 
Lebanon at noon of night ! 



42 Chords of the Zither 



Noon of night in Lebanon! 
to linger, to wait 
At the morning's darkened gate 
For the coming of the snn! 
With the rapture of escape 
From the world in every vein, 
And the fragrance of the grape 
Blent with every breeze we drain ! 
God's clear stars above the height;- 
Lebanon at noon of night! 



Chords of the Zither 43 



MOONLIGHT IN THE DESERT 

We saw the moon ascend the skies 
As though to music chorded deep, — 

Sweet, super-earthly harmonies 

Swept through the great, calm halls of Sleep. 

Then in ethereal equipoise 

It seemed to hang, a bubble blown 
Of tenuous gold, as pure as joy's 

First ecstasy in Eden known. 

And lo, a miracle ! for all 

That arid waste, compact of gloom, 

And unto desolation thrall. 
Was as a garden girt with bloom. 

Topaz and veined amethyst 

The paths that wended up and down; 

And in a veil of violet mist 

The distances appeared to drown. 

Despite we knew that dawn would show 
But hideous sand-blight to our eyes, 

So strong the spell it was as though 
We stood in Allah's paradise. 



44 Chords op the Zither 



IN A SNOWSTORM 

You see in yon blind swirl that blurs the sky, 
Sharp winter's admonition; the chill threat 
That days tempestuous above us set 

At last to its white climax brought; but I, 

Through some strange magic of the mind, descry 
A shower of citron blossoms 'neath whose net 
All save youth's passionate glamour I forget 

In a walled garden of old Tripoli. 

In the blast's swoop and eddy you discern 

Only mad discords, warped and tortured strings 

Swept by insensate winter's cruel hand; 

While I toward strains of rapturous music turn, 

Moved to fond dreams, to sweet imaginings. 

By love's low lutings in a summer land. 



Chords of the Zither 45 

A SYRIAN MEMORY 

Do you recall that night at Kerf Hawar, 

The still air fragrant with some soft perfume, 

And the refulgent glory of one star 

High in the sky above old Nimrod's tomb? 

The gushing stream by which we loved to rove, 
The slowly-rising moon's enamored tale, 

And in the quiet of the poplar grove 
The tuneful passion of the nightingale 1 

The wastes wide-reaching where the jackals cried 
And phantom figures seemed to come and go, 

And o'er us, like a monarch in his pride, 
Majestic Hermon with his crown of snow? 

The slender maiden of mysterious guise. 
The beauteous one who bore the water-jar. 

And all the orient witchery of her eyes — 
Do you recall that night at Kerf Hawar? 



46 Chords of the Zither 



DEAD CITIES 

Not one stone on another may you find, 
Where the stark plain lies bare beneath the sun, 
And desolation holds dominion dun, 

And ghostlike whispers shiver down the wind. 

No fair fruit swells to burst the ripened rind, 
Adown the slopes no singing rillets run; 
Each feathered migrant seems the spot to shun 

As though grim Pestilence were there enshrined. 

Yet there once bourgeoned green fertility. 
The waste was opulent with oil and wine, 
And multi-colored life knew wide control; — 
Friend, may thine eyes, reverting, never see, 
As the swift-shortening days of age decline. 
These Sodoms and Gomorrahs of the soul! 



Chords of the Zither 47 

A SARABAND 

And then she trod a subtle saraband, 
She who was grace's lithe embodiment, 
Holding within her eyes, where brooded night. 
The glow and glamour of some orient land; 
And weaving with a wafture of her hand 
A sense-ensnaring spell wherein were blent 
All witcheries of delight. 

Strange lights and shadows hid within her hair 
Wherethrough was shot a tiny shaft of gold; 
Her feet were sandaled as with Psyche's wings; 
And to a haunting, yet evasive, air 
She glided here, poised, dipped and darted there. 
Recoiled, and waved one gleaming, gauzy fold 
With tender languishings. 

Then failed she like blown vapor, or a star 
Plucked from the midnight's purple mysteries 
And cast into the outer void afar; 
And while me thought I still could hear her sighs 
I stumbled out of dream, and there were you 
Smiling upon me, real and fond and true. 
With your all-loving eyes! 



Night and the desert and the quenchless stars, — 

TJnfathomed mysteries, — 
The door whereto no mortal hey unbars, • 

Lo, all things change hut these! 

Night and the desert and the quenchless stars, — 

I who have hnoivn your spell, 
Shall I, one day, ivhen Death's dark door unbars, 

Learn the unfathomable? 



Jr ^& 



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